HR Practices at Siemens

Section C, Group 11

ABOUT
Siemens is a German multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company headquartered in Munich and Berlin Siemens mission On the basis of our forward-looking technology and solutions we respond to the most challenging questions of our time in the Industry, Energy and Healthcare sectors. Our wide range of products and solutions are designed with the environment in mind and engage with the subject of climate change. It operates in the core business areas of Industry, Infrastructure & Cities, Energy and Healthcare It has nation-wide sales and service network, 21 manufacturing plants and employs about 18,000 people

CULTURE MOTIVATION WITHIN A CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT The structure of Siemens motivates individuals by empowering them to improve processes Siemens provides the sort of environment where workers can learn new things and are given the opportunity to progress within the business This culture demonstrates that Siemens values its employees and helps to recruit the next generation of engineers

INNOVATION CULTURE
The culture encourages employees to become more involved in their work, suggesting and implementing improvements In engineering there is a continuous need to develop new and better products and processes - cannot be confined to one way of doing things Autonomy given but control is exercised by working with individuals as they perform their roles - harnessing peoples enthusiasm and their ideas

HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
Recognition
Runs schemes in which suggestions and projects for improvements are rewarded This could be financially, either individually or as part of a team, or in terms of peer or management recognition of their achievements

Self actualization
Offers engineering staff training and development opportunities thus helping engineers to extend their capabilities which may lead to a career progression Training and development also helps individuals to meet the changing demands of the business' global markets.

MOTIVATORS AND HYGINE FACTORS

Change programmes - raise awareness of issues with employees and encourage their involvement. They then understand and recognise the need for change Motivators at Siemens are the factors that stimulate engineers to work in the best way possible The work is stimulating irrespective of education and background The creative nature of engineering appeals to people who like a challenge and who enjoy solving problems within a creative environment.

TRAINING
APPRENTICESHIPS
Variety of technical apprenticeships, aimed at school leavers who want to 'earn as they learn Apprenticeship training is a combination of off-the job college training and on-the-job work experience Siemens believes apprenticeships provide a clear route in developing staff for the future growth of the organisation Launched in 2005 to further enhance the pipeline of financial and commercial capability within Siemens Aimed at students who have a keen interest in Business and Finance, the programme enables students to rotate around various finance and commercial placements including Accounting, HR, Procurement and Corporate areas Graduate recruits enter the business with relevant skills, knowledge and experience and the potential to do many different roles Each graduate has a discussion with his or her line manager when they start, to decide on their individual training and development plan Where appropriate, Siemens supports graduates to gain further qualifications

SIEMENS COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY

SIEMENS GRADUATE PROGRAMMES

DEVELOPMENT

Siemens implemented the Siemens Graduate Development Programme in 2005, as a means of developing graduates with the essential skills set they need in their everyday role and to equip them for a long-term career at Siemens Every graduate that joins Siemens, regardless of role or location joins the 2 year programme This consists of 9 modules including team working, customer focus, project management, communication skills, and business writing The training is hosted at a number of Siemens sites, so graduates get exposure to different parts of Siemens, learn about the business, and network amongst the graduate population By improving the development opportunities, employees feel the company values them

SIEMENS HR PRACTICES
CREATING A HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL
Siemens' operations are based on a teamwork culture Siemens wants all of its employees to be truly involved in the business and to feel part of its success

PEOPLE EXCELLENCE
People Excellence is the part of Siemens' global action plan concerned with human resource development It consists of four main elements: Achieving a high performance culture, Increasing the global talent pool, Strengthening expert careers, Siemens' Leadership Excellence Programme (SLE) People Excellence involves developing everybody that works for your organisation not just the high-fliers

 TALENT MANAGEMENT
For Siemens, matching talent with tasks produces competitive advantage. Each individual at Siemens can make best use of their talents, whatever they may be Benefits of applying talent management to all staff:
All customer-facing staff are engaged, so all customers benefit Everyone has the opportunity and choices to achieve their full potential The pipeline of highfliers is sustained

RECENT HR INITIATIVES 4SUCCESS

They had a target to create an integrated solution that could support a high performance culture which meant they needed a professional people management system They implemented a programme called the '4Success which was cloud based The programme was based on functionality and usability and the provisioning of an integrated solution with consistent data models For example, they wanted to be able to identify candidates from both external and internal points which led back to the need for a consistent data model They can now run reports on a global basis that couldn't be done before because they never had this type of transparency Currently, they have seven modules in place target setting, performance management, compensation management, roundtables, career development planning, recruitment management and employee profiles Cloud Computing means you can accelerate deployment dramatically.

CONCLUSION
Some years back it was found that bribes were paid by the management to obtain certain government contracts Siemens not only paid hefty fines for it and burned its hands but also self-imposed a ban from all government tenders and projects and introduced an organization wide compliance initiative to eradicate corruption Today Siemens has one of the strongest compliance programs in the industry and prides itself in being the leader in setting ethical working practices It eventually comes down to the people, the life of the organization, who ultimately formulate, uphold and implement all these practices Siemens' high performance culture provides the framework and support in which high performance people can show their commitment to a high performance organisation Siemens employees are motivated by being recognised for their achievements and by having opportunities for progression, regardless of the level at which they started working for Siemens